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KangGURU Travels to Jombang and Madura 2005 Kevin visited Jombang in East Java to work together with ISELP (Islamic Schools English Language Project) and AVI teachers from Australia. Activities included a Teacher Workshop at Pondok Pesantren Darul Ulum in Jombang, student visits and a meeting at SURGA FM. He then went to Madura to present a KGRE Teacher Workshop at the Pon Pes Al – Amien in Prenduan organized by the KGRE Connection Club # 019 – the Pioneer English Club. Once again Kevin worked together with two Aussie teacher trainers at the nearby Pon Pes Annuqayah, Guluk Guluk - Margaret (ISELP) and her husband John (AVI). The KGCC Get Together at Prenduan was also a highlight of the trip. Travel Report Jombang and Madura The Sunday flight to Surabaya was quick and smooth. Within 40 minutes of leaving Denpasar I was collecting the 50 kg of luggage for my workshop in Jombang. Jombang is rather large for a country town with wide streets, lots of tress and possibly the friendliest people I have met for a long time. I met Cheryl at Surabaya airport. She is an ISELP teacher from Paciran, East Java about 2 hours by public transport from Surabaya. Cheryl went to Jombang with me to observe the workshop and to meet up with fellow ISELP teachers there. The taxi ride was fine and by 3pm we were in the Fatma Hotel. Caroline Milford, an AVI volunteer teacher based at Surga FM in Jombang, soon called by the hotel. We went to her house for a small get together for ISELP and volunteer teachers. It was great to finally catch up with these Aussies and to hear about their work in pondok pesantrens and schools in their areas. As we chatted it was very clear to me that all of the ISELP teachers are very interested in East Java and in education. The spoke dearly about their students and fellow teachers and how interesting their jobs were.
Monday was workshop day.
Cheryl and I went to Pondok Pesantren Darul Ulum for the day’s teacher
activities. Amber is based at that pondok pesantren. Close on 200 teachers
attended the workshop. They were terrific and so was the venue and the
work done by the Organizing Committee. Thanks to ISELP teacher Amber Earles
and here partner Ben Lui. Together they all helped to arrange a wonderful
day for local teachers. KGRE was happy to be involved. It was good to
meet Mark Avery, John Ollie and Michael Scott as well at the workshop
– other ISELP teachers working in East Java. After the workshop, as the
‘heaven’s opened’ I spoke with several students who are in the
process of developing a television program for their school. Sounds great,
eh? I hope I hear from them again. They interviewed me and there may be
a way that KGRE can help them in the near future. It is now up to them
to write to KGRE with more information about their activities. I also
spoke to one man about a new radio station in the Jombang area for KGRE
to be involved with. More on that later I hope.
Our meeting lasted for around an hour and both Amber and I were thrilled to be there. The students were so good. I now hope that they join the Kang Guru Connection network. After booking out of the hotel, Cheryl and I returned to Surabaya. I stayed in Surabaya overnight before leaving for Madura at 8.00am the following morning. Cheryl returned to Paciran. The Teacher Workshop was well underway by 8.00am with around 120 teachers in attendance, many of whom were actually teachers in training. It was great to see them and to see their enthusiasm for teaching. The KRE Connection Club # 019 – the Pioneer English Club based at Pon Pes Al – Amien in Prenduan did a wonderful job organizing the workshop. Many thanks to Pak Suriyadi and his organizing team for their help and hard work. Margaret and John, teacher trainers (ISELP and AVI) from nearby Pon Pes Annuqayah, Guluk Guluk were there to assist me and contributed a lot to the success of the day. Although not many orders were taken for KGRE materials I did offer the young trainee teachers a special offer whereby they could receive FREE Teacher Packages if they write to me before April 15th with a letter of approximately 200 words. The letter had to tell me about either their school teaching experience or their career. Let’s wait and see how many of them actually take the time to write to me.
After the KGCC Get Together I headed for the hills to make a quick visit to Margaret and John in Pon Pes Annuqayah, Guluk Guluk about 15 minutes north of Prenduan. At the pondok pesantren I met with three separate groups of people - two student groups (and they were lively) and a group of highly motivated teachers. More on this later as the school in which Margaret and John (ISELP) work as teacher trainers is ready for action - and so is KGRE!
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